Just a short trip, sadly. We stayed the first night at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel next to the Mario Cuomo bridge, which is the name of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. We had a very nice dinner at the Hudson Anchor Restaurant. The next morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we headed off on the mountain bikes along a route that Ben had cobbled together based on a route that was published on RideWithGPS.com. It turned out to be a great route, with the literal and figurative high point being the “New” Croton Dam, which was completed in 1906. A truly spectacular dam, with an amazing spillway. We came up the south side of the gorge, so first saw the dam, and then the construction of the spillway unfolded as we crossed the dam and bridge. Very impressive! Having worked our way up into the hills, we were rewarded with a lovely, long downhill run back to the Croton Point Park, where we had left our car.
That evening we had made it to Philly, where we had dinner out (new restaurant, The Love, excellent!) with old friend, Renée, and stayed overnight. The next morning we saw a dense haze over Philadelphia. From Renée’s place one can usually see the Ben Franklin Bridge, but not that Wednesday morning (see photos). We thought we might head up to Ithaca to visit Celia and Dan, but by the time we got to Allentown the air was so thick and noxious from the Canadian wildfire smoke that we decided to give up and head back home, where the air was clearer. Another attempt at a week-long trip abandoned, sadly.
We missed a couple of rides we’d mapped out, with the most interesting being along the Abandoned Turnpike in western PA. We’ll have to live with youtube videos of the place until we have another opportunity to try it ourselves.
Full album can be found here.